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Mercenary Tao
Mercenary Tao is a highly skilled assassin-for-hire and the younger brother of Master Shen. He is very expensive as he normally charges ten billion Zeni per kill, but gave Commander Red a 20th anniversary discount in five billion Zeni. Tao was born in 459 Age just two years before the King Piccolo Wars which his brother Shen served in3. Even though he was younger, Tao was always one step a head of his older brother and a rivalry then grew between them. They began to fight over the smallest things and eventually, a simple spilled bowl of rice was enough to break them apart. At the age of 279, Tao started his career as a mercenary for hire. Though it was never stated, Tao must have gained immortality in some way causing him to live for over 200 years. Tao was said to be a major influence to Tien Shinhan during his days training with the Crane School. Dragon Ball Commander Red Saga Twenty years after starting his career as a Mercenary, Tao was hired by the Red Ribbon Army to kill Goku, who had been defeating all of their operatives and taking their Dragon Balls. Mercenary Tao kills General Blue, the Red Ribbon Army's strongest operative, in front of Commander Red to prove that his assistance is worth the money. Tao meets Goku in the Sacred Land of Korin where he is forced to kill Bora, who had previously held off the Red Ribbon Army single handedly. Goku proves to be more of a challenge, but Tao knocks him out with the Dodon Ray technique. Tao ends up only retrieving three of the Dragon Balls which were located in the backpack Goku had. The last ball was in his shirt which saved him from being killed by the Dodon Ray. Since Tao's uniform was ruined during the battle, he takes off to a town where he forces a tailor to make a new copy of his uniform for free. During the three days, Tao intimidates the townspeople into obtaining free luxuries such as a hotel room. A sniper in the town tries to assassinate Tao but fails. After his uniform is finished (three days later), Tao returns to the land of Korin to retrieve the Dragon Ball. When he arrives, he fights Goku, who had been specially trained by Korin after climbing his tower and proved to be far too strong for Tao. Tao resorts to bringing out his sword, which breaks in a clash with Goku's Power Pole. After Tao decides Goku was too powerful, he himself climbs Korin Tower to retrieve the Sacred Water that had helped Goku. He easily ascends the tower and meets Korin. Korin knows that Tao is a wicked assassin, so he tricks Tao and gives him the useless Sacred Water. After that, Korin uses a trick to make Tao believe he has improved so he will leave. He sends Tao back down the tower on the Dark Nimbus to prevent him from gaining any strength from the tower climb. Tao challenges Goku again when the Nimbus crashes into the ground and only manages to do slightly better, not enough to defeat Goku. Seeing that he was still no match for Goku, Tao pretends to surrender and, like a coward, throws a grenade at Goku. Goku kicks the grenade back at him, which detonates and seemingly kills the assassin. Though Goku presumed Tao dead, Tao used all of the money he gained from his previous jobs to be rebuilt as a cyborg. During the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, Master Shen learns of Goku's encounter with his brother, Tao. Shen instructs Tien to kill Goku in the arena to avenge his death, but, thanks to Master Roshi, Tien comes to his senses and ceases his affiliation with the Crane School, with Chiaotzu following him. Piccolo Jr. Saga However, Tao is rebuilt as a cyborg by his older brother, Shen, and competes in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, brutally defeating Chiaotzu. He fights Tien Shinhan next, and violates the rules of the tournament by using a hidden knife to cut his chest, scarring him. Despite being disqualified, Tao continued to fight. After Tien broke Tao's blade, Tao used the Super Dodon Wave, only for Tien to nullify it with a Kiai. Tien then knocked him out swiftly, then carried the unconscious Tao to his older brother Master Shen, who carried him away in disgrace. Dragon Ball Z Cell Games Saga In the anime, Tao makes two appearances in Dragon Ball Z during the Cell Games Saga. In his first appearance, he works as a personal bodyguard for a short man in a purple suit who runs a shelter which can supposedly protect people from Cell. Everything was going exactly according to plan until Gohan appeared in the village, disrupting the scheme the man had going. As the man's bodyguards surrounded Gohan, an old man from the village arrived dressed in a Chinese-styled dogu martial arts outfit. After dispatching the black-suited bodyguards, the man called for Tao to come out and take care of the old man. After a series of exchanged blows, Tao has the man on the ground. He would have finished the man off with a Super Dodon Wave, but Gohan stepped in the way at the last second. Tao asks his name and breathes a sigh of relief in hearing his name was Go-HAN instead of Go-KU (Tao is fearful of Goku because of their previous confrontations in Dragon Ball). However, his relief is quickly exchanged with fear as he learns Gohan is Goku's son and he flies off on a pine tree, effectively resigning from his position as a bodyguard. In his second appearance, he works as a henchman for a rich gangster, who has hired him to gather the Dragon Balls so he may wish for immortality to protect himself from Perfect Cell. Goku shows up to gather the two that Tao has collected, but Goku is disappointed at himself for having nothing to offer Tao in return. The assassin then poses a challenge to Goku: If Goku can disassemble three complex puzzle rings by dawn the following day, then he will be awarded the Dragon Balls. If he cannot, however, Goku must surrender the ones he has with him. Tao then offers to take Goku's jacket (which contains Goku's gathered Dragon Balls) while Goku works on the puzzles, and while Goku is distracted with the puzzle rings, Tao steals Goku's Dragon Balls and drives far away throughout the night with the gangsters. After Goku solves the puzzle rings, he simply uses Instant Transmission to find Tao and the gangsters. The naive Goku is unaware there was any ill-will on the part of Tao, and is given the Dragon Balls without any resistance. Tao has not appeared again in the series after this. He presumably met his doom either when Super Buu launched his Human Extinction Attack, or when Kid Buu blew up the earth during the Kid Buu Saga. Movies Mystical Adventure Tao is part of a plan with Master Shen and Tien to take over the kingdom of Mifan which is ruled by Chiaotzu. After having Pilaf, Shu and Mai build a Global Dragon Radar for them they use it to have Chiaotzu's army gather the Dragon Balls for them after secretly stealing his wife Ran Ran. Tao kills Lieutenant Blue just before the Chiaotzu's Tournament. During the Tournament, Tao is ordered to kill Bora right in the arena. He throws him and Bora is impaled right on a statue. After he kills Bora, Tao fights Goku. Tao's clothes get ruined by a Kamehameha, Tao uses a Dodon Ray on Goku where he is blown off all the way to Korin Tower. After Tao gets his clothes changed he takes a piller from the castle and tries to ride it to the location Goku was at. On the way he passes by Penguin Village and gets knocked off the piller by a rock Arale throws at him. Falling face first into the ground Arale pokes at him with a stick and laughs. When Tao gets up he tries to ignore Arale but Goku shows up. Tao begins to charge at Goku but then falls back because Arale and the Gatchans had his pony tail tied to a tree. Tao undoes the knot and uses a Dodon Ray on Arale but it turns out to not injure her. The Gatchans shoot Tao with a beam and Tao continues to fight Goku. After Goku is able to block Tao's Dodon Ray, Tao begins to fake surrendering and throws a Capsule to bring a vehicle out. Just after shaking Goku's hand saying that he was a worthy opponent, Tao grabs Goku's Dragon Ball and flys off on his vehicle shooting two missiles behind him. Goku and Arale deflect both the Missiles and they destroy Tao and his vehicle. Power When Tao is introduced he is shown to be very powerful at that point in the series. He toys with Goku and the only damage he receives from Goku's Kamehameha is to his clothes. At this point, Goku's strength was near to that of Master Roshi's during the 21st World Tournament (which was weaker than Roshi's strength in the following Tournament). After Goku receives training from Korin, Tao is easily overpowered although in the anime, Tao drinks Korin's Sacred water and Goku states that Tao's strength has increased. When he reappears as a cyborg he is believed to have gained a lot of strength. In an issue of V-Jump, Cyborg Tao's power level is stated to be 210. This would mean he would be stronger than Krillin and Yamcha were at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. This great power was still not enough to defeat Tien Shinhan who defeated Tao with ease. Tao was featured as a playable character in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi and its sequels Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. He is also a boss during the Dragon Ball quest in Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II in which he can use his special attack, Dodon Ray (essentially a yellow-orange version of the Kamehameha) and fire energy blasts. Lastly, he appears as a minor boss in the game Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure twice -- once as an undefeatable story element and again as a regular boss. His normal and cyborg forms are also unlockable as a playable characters in Tournament Mode. He also appears in Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo as the main enemy of chapter 4 and is unlocked once gaining all the treasures in this chapter.